" " 31, 1899 ...4,087,852 ...3,951,234 (Budget).

The figures for the period from 1871 to the end of 1887 are taken
from Jeppe's Transvaal Almanac for 1889. They represent the
ordinary Revenue and Expenditure arrived at after the deduction
of the items 'Special Receipts,' 'Special Deposits,' 'Deposits
Withdrawn,' 'Advance Refunded,' 'Advances made' and 'Fixed Deposits'
from the totals given in the Official Government Returns.

The figures for the years 1888 to 1899 are those of the published
Government Returns after the deduction of--

Fixed deposits from 1888 to 1893 inclusive.

The sale and purchase of explosives from 1895 to 1898 inclusive.

The owner's share of claim licenses from 1895 to 1899 inclusive.

Delagoa Bay Customs Dues paid to the Netherlands Railway for 1898 and
1899.

[Dynamite Monopoly.]

The dynamite monopoly has always been a Monopoly very burning
question with the Uitlanders. This concession was granted shortly
after the Barberton Fields were discovered, when the prospects of an
industry in the manufacture of explosives were not really very great.
The concessionaire himself has admitted that had he foreseen to what
proportions this monopoly would eventually grow he would not have had
the audacity to apply for it. This, of course, is merely a personal
question. The fact which concerned the industry was that the right
was granted to one man to manufacture explosives and to sell them at
a price nearly 200 per cent. over that at which they could be
imported. It was found upon investigation after some years of
agitation that the factory at which this 'manufacture' took place was
in reality merely a depot in which the already manufactured article
was manipulated to a moderate extent so as to lend colour to the
President's statement that a local industry was being fostered. An
investigation held by order of the Volksraad exposed the imposition.
The President himself stated that he found he had been deceived and
that the terms of the concession had been broken, and he urged the
Raad to cancel it--which the Raad did. The triumph was considerable
for the mining industry and it was the more appreciated in that it
was the solitary success to which the Uitlanders could point in their
long series of agitations for reform. But the triumph was not
destined to be a lasting one. Within a few months the monopoly was
revived in an infinitely more obnoxious form. It was now called a
Government monopoly, b